Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Why a blog?


Now here I sit on a green couch in the Midwest. I'm about to leave. Going to Vienna, my hometown. For sad reasons. But that's not what I'm here to discuss. So why a blog, and why the strange name? First, I like writing and anonymity. Purpose served. Second, I wanted to be extra creative in picking a name for my blog yet came up with chaotic randomness.

Popcorn. I like popcorn. I eat Popcorn. I eat a lot of it. My daily amount can average two to three large bowls. Why? It's fun, filling, and high in fiber. I highly recommend Old Bay seasoning with it, or garlic salt, or both. Sometimes I eat a piece of cheese and let it melt in my mouth together with freshly popped warm white popcorn. That's pure deliciousness! Most of the time though it is something I do in order to occupy my hands while watching a movie. I don't know why but for some reason we have turned into neurotic eaters in front of the television. Probably because there is an oversupply of food. Or perhaps because most media theories that discuss the relation between obesity and mass media point to the fact that television and mindless entertainment triggers a desire to eat. Anyways, that's a different story.

Which leads me to Fractals. (Well, not the fact that I see a connection there, but because I don't really want to talk about theories and the abundance of food. I just graduated from college. I'm done with writing scientific papers.) So the reason why fractals and popcorn are one cognitive unit in my head, is that I have recently become a documentary fanatic. And of course while watching these short bits of information on PBS or hulu (can only be viewed within the U.S.) I need something to do. Thus, eat popcorn. The whole fractals things is a really fascinating universe. The theory/idea was postulated by a guy named Mandelbrot in the mid 70s. He discovered that everywhere in nature (clouds, plants, blood vessels, you name it) things consist of geometric shapes that repeat themselves over and over when split and reduced in size. He designed the Mandelbrot Set which looks like the above image. It's incredible and it sort of looks like the third item in my blog name: Dimensions.(For a video on Dimensions and string theory click here.)

The reason why dimensions are interesting is the fact that nobody really knows if they exist. There is neither proof nor disproof. All we know it that according to Quantum Mechanics, and more recently the String Theory, there is a big chance that other dimension exist. Parallel universes in a way, that exist side by side. If these collide, unimaginable amounts of energy can and most likely will be released, leading to (what some Physics suggest) the Big Bang.


What am I trying to say? In short, all these items and issues, popcorn, dimensions and fractals must compel us to think more about who we are and why we are. From the smallest unit (fractal) to popcorn (nutrition) to the largest spheres (dimensions) all are connected to life and its essence. Of course only if you want them to be.